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Re: is it possible...

Are you in this situation? Most likely the mother will have to give at least some formula because her milk supply will plummet. I'm not saying it happens everytime but I don't know of anyone who got pregnant so quickly and was able to EBF.

Re: is it possible...

It is possible for a breastfeeding mom to get pregnant very soon after giving birth. It's very unlikely, but possible.

It is also possible to nurse through pregnancy, though many moms lose some or all of their milk supply and therefore must supplement with some combination of donated breastmilk (preferable) or formula (less preferable). I have seen it said that about 80% of women who become pregnant while nursing lose some or all of their milk supply.

Re: is it possible...

My midwife had a client who had a client get pregnant 3 weeks after the birth of her first baby. I was that a) someone would be ready, willing and able to have sex again that soon (my midwife actually tells moms to abstain until all bleeding has stopped) and b) that she didn't use some form of birth control apparently as she was not breastfeeding and thus could not rely on LAM.

But this is the origin of the term Irish twins, babies born within 12 months of each other.

LAM is highly effective for most women, but you have to be practicing it perfectly (no bottles, no paci, cosleeping, etc), and there is that 1-5% it won't work for because they resume ovulating within weeks of birth.

Interesting bit of history...the royal families in the past knew that breastfeeding would suppress ovulation for most women. So they had babies and pawned them off on wet nurses so the queen or other royal woman could have another baby in the next year. This is how they had so many babies. If they practice ecological breastfeeding, most women don't have 8+ children unless they started young and had one every other year. The norm worldwide is to have fewer children, with the baby coming along when the toddler is well over two, if not three, spacing the pregnancies out farther. Every year..that isn't the norm.